5 things we learned from Manchester United’s victory over Liverpool

Manchester United can perform in a big game without Paul Pogba

Rumours surfaced last night that Paul Pogba wasn’t going to be fit for the match against Liverpool.

A few months ago I would have been worried about our potency going forward in today’s match. However, due to Pogba’s performances of late, I was more relieved about our defensive security.

Matic and McTominay were both immense against Liverpool. They were so disciplined to stay sat in front of the back four. This allowed Jose Mourinho to play a more natural attacker, Alexis Sanchez, just off Romelu Lukaku.

In one of Sanchez’ first games for Manchester United, he was linking well with Lukaku. This meant in the FA Cup victory over Huddersfield, United looked threatening on the counter without Paul Pogba.

Sanchez had a poor game on the ball for United today. But the overall link-up of the front four was more fluid than previous dismal displays against the top six.

This does leave the conundrum still to be answered of where and how you play Paul Pogba in the big games. An intriguing problem nonetheless.

Although some may argue Scott McTominay has received enough praise over in recent games. His performance this lunchtime deserves more.

The young Scot did a terrific job in breaking up the Liverpool counter-attack and setting up threatening counter-attacks for United. McTominay made the joint most interceptions (5) and had the third-best passing accuracy (85.7%) of the starters. A stat to show his composure, against the high pressers of Liverpool.

But most impressive of all, to perform this responsibly after being subbed off at half-time against Crystal Palace just five days ago shows terrific character.